Re: Video card

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Blinker wrote:
what is right Video card for old Intel Celeron 2.66GHz?
motherboard Asrock P4i45GV,
for Socket 478 Intel Pentium 4/Celeron processor, Intel 845GV FSB 533/400MHz DDR333/266/200

There are a couple versions of that motherboard, so you may want
to verify which one you've got.

To illustrate, this is P4i45GV R5.0. The purple slot is a fake AGP
card slot. The three white slots are PCI slots. (There is *no* PCI Express
on this motherboard. That eliminates a couple hundred video card options
right away.)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/P4i45GV%20R5.0(Enlarge).jpg

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P4i45GV+R5.0

The Intel 845GV ("Graphics Value") chipset, doesn't
have an AGP interface. Asrock found a solution, which they
call AGI.

In this Wikipedia article, that kind of "fake" AGP slot goes
by four names. It suggests there is a bridge chip from PCI
bus to the AGI slot, so the bandwidth is limited to PCI type
bandwidths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agp

AGI, AGX, XGP, AGP Express <--- the last name being a really bad choice

When Asrock does that crazy stuff, they may provide a web
page with a list of working video cards. This list then,
covers your options for the AGI slot. I picked out one
example from the list.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=P4i45GV%20R5.0&s=478

"NVIDIA 6600GT Albatron AGP6600GT 81.98

PS. ATi 9600/9550 series and all Matrox series VGA cards are NOT supported with AGI"

The one I picked out, is as far as I can tell, the most powerful
of the cards.

If you want to eliminate all the guesswork, you could also use
a PCI video card. Newegg has some of those for sale.
These would be examples of PCI cards you can buy today (and you
may be able to buy one of these locally, from a shop).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609642&Subcategory=48

This is an example of a PCI interface video card, which would
fit in one of the three white slots. The GPU is PCI Express
internally, and a bridging chip on the back of the video card,
converts bus protocols to standard PCI. (At least, that is my
interpretation of finding a PLX chip on the back...)

POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 2400PRO 24PRO256M PCI Video Card - Retail $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814131082

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-131-082-S01?$S640W$

(Back view, showing PLX bridge in the center of the card.)
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-131-082-S04?$S640W$

The card has three connectors on the faceplate, including VGA
and DVI. So you should be able to connect a modern monitor.

The only reservations I have about your upgrade project, is whether
there is enough bus bandwidth for all possible applications. One
reviewer played the 3D game BF2 on moderate settings, and it worked
with the Powercolor HD 2400Pro. But with the PCI bus practical
limitation of about 110MB/sec transfer rate, there is a limit as
to how much gaming can be well supported.

When I did some experiments with a PCI version of the FX5200 card,
versus an AGP version of the FS5200, I found 3DMark2001SE gave
about the same result for both cards. Even though, the true AGP version
would have had 2100MB/sec bandwidth, versus the much lower figure for
PCI. The only place I had some trouble with the PCI card, was
a Quicktime video playback, where dragging the video player around
the screen, led to stuttering. So while your PCI video upgrade may work
out for you, there will be the odd application which simply won't
work as well, as it would with an AGP card in a real AGP slot
(not a fake slot).

In conclusion, I expect all four of the slots on that motherboard,
offer about the same functionality. The only advantage of the "AGI"
slot, is if you already have an AGP card in your hands, and want to
try it. Otherwise, you might as well buy a PCI card.

HTH,
Paul
.

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